Apple, Cranberry, Ginger Cocktail

I used to work in newspapers.

Due to my training as a journalist, I eschew the Oxford/serial comma.

I figure any misunderstanding can be avoided by rephrasing the sentence. And obviously with lists in which each item is multiple words, you want the comma before the "and". After that, the reader is being purposefully obtuse.

I say this not to spark a debate on grammar and punctuation, which I know won't happen since no one comments on my blog posts, but rather to emphasize that there are lists in which commas are absolutely nescessary to comprehension.

The example here in this recipe.

Now, when I'm browsing Pintrest, if something looks good, I'll just pin it. I won't follow the pin through to the original posting until later. If at all. This works to my detriment from time to time. Like the other day, when I pinned Nutella peanut butter cookies and when I clicked through it was an ad or something for a recipe website. Not cool.

Anyway, this particular drink was pinned with the caption, "Cranberry, Apple Vodka & Gingerale". How do you understand that? Because I understand that to mean cranberry juice, apple-flavored vodka and gingerale.

Which is why I went and bought apple-flavored vodka.

But does the recipe actually call for apple-flavored vodka?

No.

There should be a comma between the apple and vodka. Cranberry juice, "cloudy" apple juice, vodka and gingerale.

Bah, commas.

It might be cutesy overkill, but it still looked tasty.

So, when preparing for this drink, I put my friend in charge of bringing cranberry juice. I thought that was all I needed. Until I read the recipe. Then I made sure to stop by the grocery store on my way home to get "cloudy" apple juice. A.k.a., apple cider. I got the Simply Apple one because it was on sale. Like, half off. And if you've bought that brand, you know it's not cheap.

We measured the cranberry juice, apple cider and vodka. We did not put in the blender as I don't have a blender, and that just seemed silly. My friend poured the entire contents of the  mixer into our two glasses.

That didn't leave much room for ginger ale.

It was really rather pleasant.

Oh well, I just drank some of the concoction as it was and then added ginger ale. Without the ginger ale, the drink is fine, although a bit too sweet.


When I added the ginger ale, the drink was still a bit too sweet, but less cloying. I used diet ginger ale since I only drink diet. It quenched the thirst and didn't get us smashed.


Conclusion: We liked this drink. I might like something ginger-ier better. I heard tell of an apple-ginger vodka I might have to hunt down. Or perhaps add more crystallized ginger?